Tao Xiangli, a 34-year-old amateur inventor from China, spent two years building a fully-functional homemade submarine.

Tao is not the first person to build a homemade submarine, but that doesn’t make his achievement any less impressive. Especially since he did it using oil barrels and tools purchased from a second-hand market.

After two years of hard work and testing, on September 3, young Tao Xiangli presented his invention to the world and took it for a test dive in a lake just outside Beijing. His homemade submarine features a periscope, electric motors, a manometer, two propellers, depth-control tanks and it only cost $4,385 to make.

Feedback (2 Comments)

What? no “Hot-Rods? Just Scientific stuff? goddammit! Un-American, I tell you! Un-American! Why can’t they build dragsters, or go-carts, or even customized cars? Why so scientific? So “Superior Intellect”? no 4 X 4’s? Not one Dune-Buggy? no fun at all? Snobby smart-asses! Super-intellectuals! back-yard submarines! What’s next? Night scopes from old radio parts? Serious rocketry, with computers and all? moon missions for photo reconnaissance? Guided missiles to sell to Iran? Oil finding rigs, seismics and all? Maybe Aquaponics to feed the neighborhood? Why the Hell not! They have out-smarted us a few times before haven’t they, Yankee Doodle Dandy!